Why is Blender recording keyframes any time I transform an object?
I guess you have turned on the auto keying on top of the timeline. Click on it again to switch it off
If you have used it recently on one or two objects just press ctrl+z to undo everything.Otherwise pressA  to select everything , hover your pointer over the timeline pressA again to select all keyframes and press x to delete all keyframes .Now you can reposition or rescale each object.ta-dah!!